The California Surf was an NASL team that played at Anaheim Stadium in the late 70s and early 80s. They were owned by the Segerstrom family, who are longtime landowners in the cities of Santa Ana and Costa Mesa, where they developed the upscale South Coast Plaza mall.

Santa Ana is nearer to Newport Beach than Anaheim or Fullerton… in fact, there was a point in time when Newport Beach was barely booming, that it was promoted as being “near Santa Ana.” California Surf fits the landscape very naturally, although the name “California” is very broad, and maybe not specific enough.

L.A. Aztecs

The LA Aztecs played in a number of venues in Los Angeles County during their existence in the first NASL, but never called an Orange County venue home. There’s no telling how they would fare if they went the route of the former LA Rams, the current LA Angels, the former LA Blues, the current LA Kiss. These were / are Greater / Metropolitan Los Angeles- (Orange County) based pro teams. But if an LA Aztecs club were to really want to appeal to an Orange County community, Santa Ana would be a top choice, but Titan Stadium in Fullerton could work too.

Santa Ana Winds FC

The Santa Ana winds, or “Santa Anas,” are very synonymous with Los Angeles and the Southland. The name is realy ideal in that it’s one that is entirely authentic and native to the landscape, and it’s very common in the Angeleno/angelino conscience. It’s ideal because it’s very region-specific, but widely known in the Los Angeles area, and its more specific than saying “California.”

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Sunday’s 2017 U.S. Open Cup qualifying match between Santa Ana clubs La Máquina and Winds FC, both of the United Premier Soccer League, came down to capitalizing on scoring opportunities, of which both sides had plenty. La Máquina took advantage of three “soft goal” opportunities given by Winds FC, with a final score of 3-0. The story of the night for Winds FC was failing to score on clear scoring opportunities, of which they had at least 4.

The difference was set in the first half with La Máquina scoring off of two failed clearances by the Winds defense, first in the 8th minute on a goal by Edwin Borboa and then in the 18th on a shot from distance by José “Chila” Montes de Oca. The Winds FC game plan was to attack up the flanks, with which they did manage to generate some danger but ultimately no goal, and to shut down La Máquina’s midfield commandeered by the Castro Pérez brothers (José and Rosendo), both with Liga de Ascenso experience with Club Dorados de Sinaloa.

The third goal came in the 86th minute, “Chila’s” second of the night, with Winds FC playing with 10 men after a hamstring injury to a midfielder. Ironically, La Máquina scored when Winds FC made it easiest for them to do so, something good teams like La Máquina take advantage of. Overall, La Máquina created more dangerous shots on goal and crosses, and hit the post twice.

La Habra City FC truly tested Santa Ana Winds FC, don’t let the 5-0 final score mislead you. La Habra City was the better team in the first half of play in a US Open Cup qualifier on Sunday, September 18 at Colton High School Stadium. LHCFC generated more corner kicks and had three clear scoring opportunities in the first half, with one of those denied on a big save by the Winds FC keeper.

The first half could’ve been 2-1 or 3-1 in favor of La Habra. But Santa Ana weathered LHCFC’s offensive onslaught well, demonstrating improved defensive. Winds FC have shown defensive lapses in UPSL play, but showed a more determined defense in this Open Cup qualifier, with midfielders and defenders fighting and tackling for possession effectively. The Winds midfielders show good ball recovery when double teaming and going alchoque, or jostling, for possession.

The Santa Ana defense was the bigger story of the match in contrast to its offense. Winds FC are known to score a lot of goals but their defense was the biggest question mark going into Open Cup qualifying. Their defense kept them in the game and allowed them to break through in the 54th minute, when Fermín Lara scored on a corner kick, and the floodgates broke open very soon after. The third goal came two minutes later, ten minutes later came the fourth, and the fifth goal came two minutes after the that.

Winds FC will have to repeat their defensive performance, especially against their next rival and fellow UPSL club, La Máquina, who are expected to be a bigger test. The match is said to be held at Santa Ana Stadium, pending confirmation. But the next round match could be held at Westminster High School given that La Máquina is the “home side”and played elimination games there in the 2016 Open Cup.

United Premier Soccer League members Santa Ana Winds FC and La Habra City FC will face off in a qualifying match to the first round of the 2017 U.S. Open Cup on Sunday, September 18 at Colton High School Stadium in Colton, CA at 6:30 pm.

Santa Ana currently sits in fourth place with a 5-2-1 record in the UPSL Southeast Conference, behind reputable sides La Máquina FC and Strikers FC South Coast, in addition to upstart Avalanche FC, which has taken the UPSL by storm.

Another upstart, La Habra City FC, currently sits in sixth place in the UPSL Western Conference with a 1-2-2 record. La Habra’s coach, Cesar Reyes, is well-familiarized with Winds FC having coached the Santa Ana side prior to starting up La Habra City. Reyes’s familiarity with Winds FC may be an advantage for him and his club.

But Santa Ana Winds FC, though exposed to have defensive deficiencies, have a potent offense having scored 37 goals in 8 games. That’s one more goal than La Máquina FC has scored on the same conference opposition that Santa Ana has faced, and four more than UPSL expansion club and sensation Avalanche FC has, versus the same conference. Nevertheless, Winds FC will have to improve vastly on defense, regardless of their offensive capabilities, if they want to make a name for themselves in the Open Cup the way other UPSL clubs La Máquina & LA Wolves did in the 2016 Open Cup.

Winds FC is considered the “home side,” given that this match was originally scheduled to be played at Lake Forest Sports Park, but the field became unavailable, according to club owner Leonel López. The Santa Ana side, still continues to struggle to get fields in Santa Ana, citing politics involving other leagues in town. For instance, while Winds FC had to schedule a match 47 miles away in Colton, another club calling Santa Ana home, “L.A. Laguna” of the Premier Development League, aka “Ozzy’s Laguna,” for UPSL and youth league purposes, will play an Open Cup qualifier at Santa Ana Stadium vs UPSL club OC Crew on September 17.

Visit the LA Times online archives and you’ll find some nuggets of history concerning pro soccer at Santa Ana Stadium. You’ll see a story of international matches and local pro league matches that took place at this stadium, long before the creation of Major League Soccer, in 1996.

You’ll see a period when soccer flourished at the stadium, followed by a period of stagnation in the face of other developments in pro soccer, and pro sports, in the LA area. Before there was a Home Depot Center or a StubHub Center, there was Santa Ana Stadium as an option for international soccer matches. This stadium as a soccer venue was hindered even further with the removal of its natural grass and the installation of an artificial American football gridiron.

You’ll see a city’s replacing of the sport of international soccer, with all of the economic potential that it had back then, and has now, with a favoring of American football for the city’s private Catholic high school, Mater Dei, and the city’s public school district teams. Is it any wonder that Mater Dei games are what usually fill the stadium nowadays, attended by friends and families of kids that generally aren’t from, nor live in Santa Ana?

International soccer at Santa Ana Stadium, since its advent

International soccer began being programmed at Santa Ana Stadium soon after it was built in 1963. The stadium was the site of a match between a local team named the Orange County Soccer Club, and none other than historic German powerhouse, FC Bayern Munich in 1966.

Side note: Information on pro soccer at Santa Ana Stadium for nearly a 20 year period is unavailable here, as the research for this article is limited to the Los Angeles Times’ online archive, which only goes as far back as 1985.

Whoever the promoters were putting on international soccer at Santa Ana Stadium knew what teams would draw well there given the city’s demographics, those teams being Mexican clubs Chivas de Guadalajara and Club América. It was common practice to see a club face a national team, like in the cases of Guadalajara’s 1-0 win over Honduras, on March 15, 1988, and a 5-4 goal fest Chivas took over the United States, a month later on April 24, 1988. Club América defeated Bayern Munich 2-1 on January 14, 1989 and East Germany by a score of 3-1 on August 2, 1990 at this stadium. América faced the United States at Santa Ana Stadium on March 25, 1989 prior to their match with East Germany, in a match for the “SantaAnaSoccerCup,” a game in which the “team from Mexico City” (Club América) won 2-0.

There was at least one game with tinges of CONCACAF regional tournament play, with Central American clubs Herediano of Costa Rica facing storied club Olympia of Honduras, a game which Herediano won 1-0 on August 28, 1988.

American pro soccer leagues and club ventures at Santa Ana Stadium

Santa Ana Stadium was the home of the now-defunct clubs California Sunshine (American Soccer League, defunct), Orange County Zodiac, later rebranded Orange County Waves, (A-League, now known as the United Soccer League). Most importantly, what did these teams have in common? None of them used the Santa Ana name, thus failing, fantastically, to form a club that would resonate with the Santa Ana market.

Another factor that contributed in part to burying pro soccer in Orange County (and more importantly, Santa Ana), until the LA Blues of the USL rebranded themselves “OC Blues” in 2014, is the formation of Major League Soccer and that league’s goal of subjugating USL, and placing MLS development teams there, so as to not have a rival to its soccer “business,” which is really an ongoing monopolization of the “First Division,” or, “Major League” status, which is really no much more than a tag set by monetary criteria and not sporting merit, through promotion and relegation among divisions, which is how Division 1 status is attained in leagues around the world. But not in the USA, ’cause what works for pro basketball, baseball, football in this country, works for soccer is their thinking. Getting back to the original point of this paragraph, Orange County went without pro soccer for 14 years, the Blues now play in Irvine, the city next door, but Santa Ana Stadium hasn’t had a pro team since the “OC Zodiac,” which made a last-ditch effort to save themselves by moving to Santa Ana Stadium, (they moved out of Irvine) but it was too late, and they insisted on branding themselves generically as the “Orange County Waves.”

So we see this timeline of pro soccer at Santa Ana Stadium beginning in the 1960s, with some information missing on the 1970s missing from the LA Times online archives, although it can be deduced that soccer was played there throughout this decade, given that the sport has always been popular in the city and given that a Santa Ana soccer player, José López, worked his way up through UCLA to eventually play on the inaugural 1974 LA Aztecs of the first North American Soccer League. It’s safe to say that Santa Ana Stadium remained a destination for soccer during that decade and it was such through the 80s.

In the 80s we see a number of international soccer matches, particularly ones appealing to the city’s Latino (mostly Mexican, and or Mexican-American) demographic, one that the city has been strongly associated with since then and prior. In the 90s we see the inclusion of American soccer leagues that came and went, one flopping out entirely and one rebranding itself as the United Soccer League.

At the start of the 21st century we see the growth of MLS and its stymying of organic growth in soccer cities like Santa Ana, because of that league’s and the US Soccer Federation’s refusal to implement promotion and relegation. For the LA Galaxy to continue being what it is, an unchallenged franchise clinging to a division 1 tag, no other team and city in the LA region can grow a team and reach division 1 status through sporting merit. For the LA Galaxy to continue as is, soccer cities in the LA region must remain subjugated, at best allowed to exist as a mostly irrelevant club trotting along in a MLS development league, which is the case of the OC Blues.

Afterthoughts

One this is abundantly clear. Santa Ana has always been a soccer destination. It’s soccer potential is still great and better than ever before, due to population growth, along with the popularity the sport enjoys. “Every place you go in the community is about soccer,” said Santa Ana Unified School District Superintendent Rick Miller. The Galaxy knows this and that’s why they’ve always tried to treat Santa Ana like nothing more than a market. It is much, much more than a market. MLS knows this and that’s why they squatted on santaanafc.com, which is absolute pettiness on the part of the shot-callers at that league, which are backed NFL, MLB and NBA money.

Just recently the LA Galaxy struggled to move on in the US Open Cup versus a Santa Ana amateur team known as “La Máquina.” What would’ve that result been if a Santa Ana club had the competitive advantages of a pro club? Things like fulltime training, physical trainers, doctors, nutritionists, and at least the opportunity and incentive to receive the necessary cash injections to compete regionally? That full potential is capped through US Soccer’s locking out of all clubs not already bought into (literally) “division 1” and the exposure that’s associated with that tag. And that’s done to curb competition, don’t be naïve.

The fourth round of the US Open Cup has concluded with MLS teams inching past NASL ones in most cases. In fact, it took most MLS fourth round entrants more than 90 minutes to move on to the fifth round. So much was MLS’s struggle in the 4th round that the league’s flagship LA Galaxy needed more than 90 minutes, and a highly questionable goal, to get past an amateur club, La Máquina.

The goal in question caused such a stir that La Máquina and their league, the United Premier Soccer League, exercised their right to protest the match the following day. At first it seemed that the club would have no case, some scoffing it off, but a series of very revealing tweets showed that the referee that handled the match, Ramón Hernández, admitted to a mistake in allowing the play that led to the goal to continue. It remains to be seen whether La Máquina’s request for a rematch will be granted by US Soccer, as of the time of this writing, June 16 at 11:36 pm, PST.

The tweets came from another referee, Edgar Martínez, who attended the match and who knows Ramón Hernández, get this, because they’re both still attending refereeing school, known as RPD for Referee Professional Development, offered through Cal South.

Galaxy players admitted, as revealed by their writer Adam Serrano, and also by former MLS and ESPN writer, the reputable Scott French, that they too were surprised with the referee’s allowing of the play by saying things like, “If I were them [La Máquina], I’d be pissed,” or “Am I allowed to shoot this?”

And so it remains to be seen if La Máquina’s protest will be upheld. But most commentary on Twitter has been sympathetic and favorable towards La Máquina, if not outraged, over the allowance of the controversial play that opened the floodgates for the Galaxy.